When you’re running a sci-fi RPG, how much the game world differs from the present day will depend on how far into the future the game projects — but given the rapid pace of technological advancement in the past hundred years, an awful lot is likely to have changed.
This can lead to a sort of paralysis. As the GM, you might be tempted to explain every little thing that’s different about the future — even stuff that the players probably won’t care about, and that has no impact on the game.
Instead, fight that impulse. You can handwave the vast majority of those changes.
Just assume that many problems have been solved, and that most stuff works better than the versions we have today. Cancer? Cured, at least for the wealthy. Holes in the ozone layer? There’s some weird bacteria that fixed them. How much data can my storage crystal hold? As much as you want. You get the idea — if it’s just color, let it be color and move on.
At the same time, you can leave some noticeable elements unchanged in order to emphasize the highlights of the setting. In the Aliens movies, for example, most firearms aren’t that different from modern guns, and the insides of the ships look like boiler rooms — but they have FTL flight and some nifty high-tech gear. The stuff that hasn’t changed stands out, and it enhances the Aliens milieu.
The brilliant Burning Empires RPG formalizes color right in the rules. If something is just there to look or sound cool, and has no mechanical effect, it’s color. That leaves the GM — and the whole group — free to focus on the stuff that does matter: the drama, the space battles, the adventure.
Reading Burning Empires is what gave me the idea for this post. Even if your sci-fi RPG of choice doesn’t build handwaving and color into its rules, it’s a great concept to drift into your campaign.
I’m getting ready to run my wife through a sci-fi adventure, and I figured this was the best way to handle most of the future innovation. You have to have players that are REALLY interested in the scientific progress for the little details to be worth describing, and at the same time, all of them have to be interested, or there’re going to be people bored out of their skulls.
Out of curiosity, do you know of any good references for humorous sci-fi? Aside from Hitchhiker’s and Red Dwarf, I’ve been at a loss. My wife wants to play an intergalactic pastry chef, so the idea is just ripe for a lighter, humorous game, but I’m at a loss for how to give the story some depth. Thanks in advance for thoughts.
stingray; the japanese anime series Martian Successor Nadesico leaps to mind.
Stingray, if you like humorous fantasy or sci-fi, Robert Asprin’s Phule’s Company series comes to mind. It’s a humor story about the dregs of the dregs of a military which is comprised entirely of the dregs of society, yet they somehow succeed in succeeding, despite the wishes of others. Other series Asprin’s done include the Myth-Adventures fantasy series, and editing the Thieves’ World anthologies, so he does have some definite skills. (Did I mention that the chief cook of Phule’s Company is an insane 5-star quality chef with some attitude problems and the martial arts skills to make him capable of threatening ANYONE legitimately? He’s probably a good character reference, certainly)
Another anime series in the vein of drow’s post is Irresponsible Captain Tylor. It’s old, but it follows a Phule’s Company style premise as well. (Honestly, military ships in sci-fi are great grounds for humor.)
For humorour sci-fi, how about Galaxy Quest? There are also some episodes of Star Trek: TNG that are quite funny (I’m useless for names, though), and ditto with Stargate SG-1 (“Window of Opportunity” comes to mind).
Scott: Thanks for the link! It’s pretty easy to slant the “most problems are solved” worldview by just adding “if you’re rich enough.” That plus leaving some areas with zero or little progress should do the trick.